Lent Bumps 2017 Day 4: "The best and worst few minutes of rowing this term"

On Day 4 it was just the first boats racing.

W1

Another solid row from the Corpus girls in the fourth day of bumps. Once again though their kindness shone through, and having decided that Clare had worked really hard as sandwich boat for the last couple of days and deserved a break, a well-fought bump was conceded at First Post Corner. The ol' Bumps switcheroo has therefore pushed the Corpus women down into the sandwich boat position - but at the end of the day, why settle for one race, when you could have two?? Little does the rest of the river know that today, the comeback begins... just in time for Boat Club Dinner...

M1

Friday brought another day of racing, another day of Ladbetter's relentless nonsensical chat and another day of bow 4 pretending they can row. We were chasing Jesus II who bumped Homerton in seconds, so we were looking for another solid row over to set us up to be able to spoon Homerton on the final day.

In this single race we managed to produce both the best and worst few minutes of rowing this term. Perhaps Deutsch was distracted by one of his many girls who love rowing but are still stuck in their college second boats, or maybe we just aren't very good at rowing. Whatever the reason, during the rough patch the crabs were coming every stroke and we were reminded of the terms's training and the multiple times Barney the Dinosaur dropped his blade. But not today! In a heroic effort from Barney (can't) Row, the monster at 2's hands gripped the blades like steadfast Barnacles sticking to a rocky ocean outcrop, denying the water from claiming another victim of the crab variety. The right crustacean won the day: Barney the Barnacle. What a chap. Well done Barnana. Or it was possible he wasn't even in the boat at all because he had too much work to do (in Spoons on the chirpse). To be honest we probably wouldn't have been able to tell the difference in terms of the power being put down through the water.

But when we hit the Reach we rowed like legends, pulling away from Selwyn who faded into FaT II. Once clear we paddled to a safe row over with Downing II years behind. Coach and mastermind of the new "One Year Plan: wait until Jan graduates because he is detrimental for the boat club both on and off the water", the Great Pilgini commented after the race: "I bench 130kg for 12 reps".

The final day is all set up for a big one. Mark will bring the beers and Harrison will bring the cough syrup. Rasheed will bring his GPS, Dan will bring himself late from cycling cuppers and Marcin will bring bad technique in the water. Tune in on Facebook/CamFM for the carnage.

Photo Credit: Giorgio Divitini